What Makes a Story Newsworthy in 2025?

Did you know that journalists reject over 95% of the pitches they receive? In today’s oversaturated media landscape, understanding what makes a story truly newsworthy isn’t just helpful—it’s essential for anyone seeking media coverage.

Whether you’re a business owner wanting to share company milestones, a PR professional crafting press releases, or a marketer developing a media strategy, grasping the fundamental elements of newsworthiness will dramatically increase your chances of earning valuable media attention.

At Empathy First Media, we’ve secured coverage for clients in publications ranging from local business journals to major outlets like Forbes and The Wall Street Journal. Our approach combines traditional news values with data-driven insights to create stories journalists actually want to cover.

Let’s dive into what truly makes a story newsworthy in today’s fast-paced media environment.

The Science Behind Newsworthiness

Newsworthiness isn’t subjective or arbitrary—it’s based on established criteria that have evolved over decades of journalism practice and academic research.

But here’s what most people get wrong…

Many assume that what’s important to them will automatically interest journalists and their audiences. This misconception leads to countless rejected pitches and missed media opportunities.

The truth is that journalists and editors evaluate potential stories through a specific lens, looking for key elements that make content valuable to their audiences. These elements form the foundation of what media professionals call “news values” or “news factors.”

Our digital PR specialists at Empathy First Media have analyzed thousands of successful media placements to identify patterns in what gets covered versus what gets ignored. We’ve distilled these insights into seven critical factors that determine newsworthiness in today’s media landscape.

7 Essential Factors That Make a Story Newsworthy

1. Timeliness: The Power of “Now”

Timeliness is perhaps the most fundamental element of newsworthiness. News, by definition, is new information.

When something happens recently or is happening now, it automatically becomes more interesting to audiences who want to stay informed about current events. This creates a sense of urgency and relevance that makes the story more compelling.

How to leverage timeliness:

• Connect your story to recent events or trending topics
• Release information promptly—delays can kill newsworthiness
• Frame ongoing situations with fresh angles or developments
• Time announcements strategically to align with relevant dates

A perfect example of effective timeliness comes from our client in the cybersecurity sector. When a major data breach made headlines, we immediately positioned their CEO as an expert resource, sharing practical advice for businesses. This timely response resulted in coverage across multiple business publications and technology newsletters within 24 hours.

Our PR strategy services include monitoring breaking news and trending topics to identify opportunities for clients to enter timely conversations with valuable perspectives.

2. Impact: The Scope and Significance

Impact measures how many people are affected by a story and how significantly they’re affected. Stories with broader reach and deeper consequences naturally attract more attention.

Think about it this way…

A new local ordinance affecting 5,000 residents has less impact than national legislation affecting millions. Similarly, a minor inconvenience has less impact than something that fundamentally changes people’s lives or businesses.

How to demonstrate impact:

• Quantify the number of people affected (use specific numbers when possible)
• Illustrate the depth of the effect on individuals or groups
• Show broader implications beyond the immediate situation
• Connect micro trends to macro consequences

When our healthcare technology client launched a new platform, we focused our press outreach on how their solution could reduce medical errors affecting over 400,000 patients annually. This impact-focused approach secured coverage in healthcare trade publications and mainstream business media.

Daniel Lynch, our founder, explains: “The media gravitates toward stories that affect many people significantly. When pitching, always answer the implicit question: ‘Why should my audience care about this?’ with clear, compelling evidence of impact.”

3. Proximity: The Local Connection

Proximity refers to how close a story is to the audience—both geographically and psychologically. People naturally care more about events happening in their community or that directly affect groups they identify with.

This explains why local news outlets prioritize regional stories over national ones, and why niche publications focus intensely on their specific industry or interest area.

How to utilize proximity:

• Localize broader stories for specific markets or communities
• Highlight regional implications of national trends
• Create market-specific data or examples when pitching local media
• Demonstrate psychological proximity through relatable circumstances

When working with a national retail client on a store expansion, we created customized press releases for each new location, emphasizing local job creation, community partnerships, and regional economic impact. This approach resulted in strong coverage in local business journals and regional TV stations that national angles alone wouldn’t have secured.

4. Prominence: The Power of Notable Names

Stories involving well-known individuals, brands, or institutions inherently generate more interest. This could mean celebrities, industry leaders, major corporations, or respected organizations.

Why does this matter?

When recognized entities are involved, the story comes with built-in audience interest and perceived importance. For better or worse, what happens to prominent figures or organizations is considered more newsworthy than identical events involving unknown entities.

How to incorporate prominence:

• Highlight connections to recognized brands, people, or institutions
• Feature quotes or endorsements from industry leaders
• Mention partnerships with prominent organizations
• Reference previous coverage in prestigious publications

We helped a financial technology startup gain significant media traction by announcing their advisory board, which included former executives from JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs. The prominence of these names elevated a standard company announcement into a noteworthy business story.

5. Novelty: The Allure of the Unusual

Unusual, unexpected, or novel events capture attention in a way that routine occurrences simply cannot. The classic journalistic saying “Dog bites man isn’t news; man bites dog is news” illustrates this principle perfectly.

But here’s the challenge…

In an era where audiences are constantly bombarded with content claiming to be “revolutionary” or “unprecedented,” true novelty must be genuine and substantive.

How to emphasize novelty:

• Identify truly unique aspects of your story (first, only, largest, etc.)
• Challenge conventional wisdom with surprising data
• Highlight unexpected approaches or outcomes
• Present familiar issues from genuinely new perspectives

For our technology manufacturing client, we secured extensive coverage by focusing on how they were using agricultural waste to create biodegradable packaging—a surprising approach that stood out in an industry typically associated with synthetic materials and chemical processes.

6. Conflict: The Draw of Tension and Resolution

Stories involving conflict, controversy, or tension naturally draw human interest. This includes everything from literal conflicts (like disputes or competitions) to more abstract ones (like overcoming obstacles or challenging established norms).

Conflict creates narrative tension that engages audiences and makes stories more compelling. It introduces stakes and consequences that keep people invested in the outcome.

How to effectively present conflict:

• Frame challenges and their solutions as engaging narratives
• Present different perspectives on controversial issues
• Highlight competitive dynamics or market disruptions
• Document struggles against obstacles and eventual triumphs

When working with a healthcare advocacy organization, we framed their story around the conflict between rising medication costs and patient access to treatment. This approach resulted in a feature story that humanized policy issues through personal patient experiences while positioning our client as a solution provider.

7. Human Interest: The Emotional Connection

Stories that evoke emotion, illustrate universal experiences, or showcase remarkable human achievements captivate audiences on a deeper level. Human interest elements create emotional connections that make abstract issues concrete and relatable.

This is especially important in today’s data-saturated media environment, where the human dimension can distinguish your story from countless others.

How to cultivate human interest:

• Include personal stories and testimonials that illustrate larger points
• Highlight individual experiences within broader trends
• Showcase compelling visuals of people behind the statistics
• Connect technical innovations to their human impact

For our enterprise software client, we transformed a technical product launch into a human interest story by focusing on how their automation solution allowed customer service representatives to spend more time solving complex problems for vulnerable customers. This approach secured coverage in business publications that typically wouldn’t cover technical product announcements.

The Evolution of Newsworthiness in the Digital Age

While these seven traditional factors remain foundational, digital media has introduced new dimensions to newsworthiness that savvy PR professionals must understand.

Today’s news environment is characterized by:

Algorithmic Amplification

Social media algorithms increasingly influence what becomes news by amplifying certain stories based on engagement metrics. Understanding these algorithms can help predict what content might gain traction.

At Empathy First Media, we use AI-powered tools to analyze engagement patterns across platforms, helping us craft stories that are optimized for algorithmic amplification while maintaining journalistic integrity.

Audience Participation

Modern news is increasingly interactive, with audience comments, shares, and user-generated content becoming part of the story itself.

We’ve found that stories designed to encourage audience participation—through questions, polls, or submissions—often receive greater visibility and longer coverage cycles than traditional one-way announcements.

Visual Storytelling Imperative

In today’s visual-first media environment, compelling imagery or video dramatically increases a story’s chances of coverage.

According to our internal data, pitches that include high-quality visual assets are 65% more likely to result in media placement than text-only submissions. Our content creation team specializes in developing visual assets specifically designed to enhance newsworthiness.

Data-Driven Narratives

Modern journalists increasingly value stories backed by original data or research, which provide both credibility and exclusive content.

We regularly help clients conduct newsworthy surveys or analyze their internal data to generate unique insights that serve as the foundation for media coverage. This approach has proven particularly effective for establishing thought leadership in competitive industries.

How to Evaluate Your Story’s Newsworthiness

Before pitching to journalists, assess your story against these key factors to determine its potential for coverage:

The Newsworthy Score Matrix

We’ve developed a proprietary scoring system to evaluate potential news stories for our clients. You can adapt this approach to quickly assess your own stories:

Rate your story from 1-5 on each factor:

• Timeliness: How recent or urgent is the information?
• Impact: How many people are affected and how significantly?
• Proximity: How relevant is this to the target audience’s location or identity?
• Prominence: Does this involve well-known entities or individuals?
• Novelty: How unusual or unexpected is this information?
• Conflict: Does the story contain tension, obstacles, or competing interests?
• Human Interest: Does it connect emotionally or showcase remarkable human elements?

Stories scoring 25 or higher (out of 35 possible points) typically have strong potential for broad media coverage. Stories between 18-24 may secure targeted placements in relevant niche publications. Stories below 18 may need strengthening before pitching or might be better suited for owned media channels.

Journalist Perspective Analysis

Put yourself in a journalist’s position by asking these critical questions:

• Why would their audience care about this story right now?
• What unique information or angle does this provide?
• How easy have you made it for them to cover this story?
• What supporting elements (data, visuals, interviews) are available?
• How does this fit with their publication’s typical content?

This exercise often reveals gaps in your story’s appeal that can be addressed before pitching.

Common Newsworthiness Mistakes to Avoid

In our years of securing media coverage for clients across industries, we’ve identified several common pitfalls that undermine potentially newsworthy stories:

Confusing Importance with Newsworthiness

Many organizations struggle to distinguish between what’s important to them internally and what’s genuinely newsworthy to external audiences.

For example, a company might consider a new office location momentous, but without additional elements like significant job creation or innovative design features, journalists will likely find it routine rather than newsworthy.

Burying the Lead

Sometimes a truly newsworthy element exists within your story, but it’s obscured by less compelling information. Always identify and lead with your strongest news angle.

One of our technology clients initially wanted to announce several minor product updates, which wouldn’t have attracted much attention. Upon deeper analysis, we discovered that their new accessibility features would make digital tools available to previously underserved populations—a much more newsworthy angle that led to feature coverage.

Missing Timely Connections

Failing to connect your story to current events, trends, or conversations can significantly reduce its appeal, even when other newsworthy elements are present.

We help clients monitor the news cycle and identify strategic moments to release information when contextual relevance will enhance its newsworthiness.

Neglecting the “So What?” Factor

Every successful news story clearly answers why the information matters. Without a compelling answer to “So what?”, even technically interesting stories will struggle to secure coverage.

Our PR strategy process always includes rigorous “So what?” testing to ensure every pitch contains clear significance for the intended audience.

Transforming Ordinary Updates into Newsworthy Stories

Not every organization regularly generates inherently newsworthy developments. However, strategic approaches can elevate routine information into media-worthy stories:

Data Transformation

Convert internal metrics or information into newsworthy insights by analyzing trends, making comparisons, or identifying surprising patterns.

For a SaaS client with no major product announcements, we analyzed their anonymous user data to identify industry trends, creating a quarterly report that generated regular coverage in trade publications and established them as an industry authority.

Localization Strategies

Take broader trends or national stories and create newsworthy local angles that regional media will find relevant to their audiences.

When a retail client wanted coverage for a standard nationwide promotion, we created localized versions highlighting regional preferences and shopping patterns specific to each market, resulting in coverage across multiple local outlets.

Human Impact Focus

Shift focus from technical or business details to compelling human stories that illustrate broader points.

For a healthcare technology client, we arranged interviews with patients whose lives had been improved by their solution, transforming a technical product story into an emotional human interest piece that secured feature coverage.

Expert Commentary Positioning

Establish your organization’s leaders as expert sources who can provide valuable perspective on breaking news or emerging trends.

Through our thought leadership development program, we’ve helped clients become go-to sources for journalists, ensuring regular media mentions even without company-specific news to announce.

Building Relationships with Journalists for Better Coverage

Understanding newsworthiness is essential, but building productive relationships with media professionals amplifies your ability to secure coverage for your stories:

Personalized Research Approach

Before pitching, thoroughly research journalists to understand their specific interests, recent articles, and preferred communication styles.

Our media relations specialists maintain detailed profiles on thousands of journalists, allowing us to make highly relevant connections between our clients’ stories and reporters’ specific beats and interests.

Value-First Engagement

Instead of leading with pitches, start relationships by providing genuinely helpful information, connections, or insights without immediate expectations.

We regularly connect journalists with expert sources or data—even when unrelated to our clients—because we understand that relationship building is a long-term investment that ultimately benefits everyone involved.

Feedback Integration

When journalists decline a pitch, request constructive feedback and use those insights to improve future submissions.

This approach has helped us refine our understanding of specific publications’ preferences and dramatically increase our placement success rates over time.

Consistent Reliability

Always deliver what you promise to journalists—accurate information, timely responses, and access to quoted sources when needed.

Our team’s commitment to journalistic standards has established us as a trusted resource that reporters know they can rely on for verified information and credible sources.

How Empathy First Media Crafts Newsworthy Stories

At Empathy First Media, we’ve developed a systematic approach to identifying and developing newsworthy angles for our clients:

1. Scientific Media Analysis

We begin by analyzing recent coverage in target publications to identify patterns in what stories receive attention. This data-driven approach reveals specific preferences of different outlets and journalists.

2. News Value Amplification

Rather than relying on a single element of newsworthiness, we strategically combine multiple factors to strengthen each story’s appeal.

3. Contextual Relevance Mapping

We constantly monitor trending topics and breaking news to identify timely connections that can enhance the relevance of client announcements.

4. Multi-Format Content Development

Understanding that different media require different formats, we develop each story in multiple versions—from detailed press releases to concise pitches to visual assets—ensuring journalists have exactly what they need.

5. Targeted Distribution Strategy

Instead of mass distribution, we carefully match stories to the most appropriate journalists based on their specific interests and recent coverage, significantly increasing placement rates.

Our strategic approach to media relations has consistently generated coverage for clients in publications ranging from industry trade journals to national business media, helping establish thought leadership and brand credibility.

Transform Your Media Coverage Strategy

Understanding what makes a story newsworthy is just the first step. Consistently translating your organization’s developments into coverage-worthy stories requires both strategic insight and tactical expertise.

At Empathy First Media, we combine data-driven analysis with creative storytelling to help clients identify, develop, and secure media coverage for their most compelling stories.

Whether you’re looking to announce a major development, establish thought leadership in your industry, or build long-term media relationships, our team of PR specialists can help you navigate the complex media landscape and achieve your communication goals.

Schedule a discovery call today to learn how we can help transform your organization’s news into stories journalists actually want to cover.

Frequently Asked Questions About Newsworthiness

1. How has social media changed what’s considered newsworthy?

Social media has democratized news creation, allowing stories to gain traction based on audience engagement rather than traditional editorial decisions alone. This has expanded the definition of newsworthiness to include more human interest stories and niche topics that resonate with specific communities. However, it has also created challenges with verification and context that make professional journalism more valuable than ever for establishing credibility.

2. Do different types of media have different standards for newsworthiness?

Yes, different media outlets absolutely have varying standards and preferences for newsworthiness. Trade publications prioritize industry-specific developments that mainstream outlets might ignore. Local media focus intensely on community impact that national outlets wouldn’t cover. Digital-only publications often favor stories with strong visual or interactive elements. Understanding these differences is essential for targeting pitches effectively.

3. How can small businesses compete for media attention against larger companies?

Small businesses can secure meaningful coverage by emphasizing uniqueness rather than size. Focus on local impact, unusual business models, compelling founder stories, or niche expertise. Small businesses often have more authentic and accessible human interest angles that can outperform corporate announcements from larger competitors. Strategic targeting of relevant local and industry publications also increases success rates.

4. Is it better to have one strong news element or multiple moderate ones?

While having one exceptionally strong element (like major prominence or extraordinary novelty) can sometimes be sufficient, our experience shows that stories combining multiple elements consistently secure better placement and more extensive coverage. For example, a timely story (timeliness) about a local business (proximity) with an unusual approach (novelty) will typically outperform a story with just one strong element.

5. How long does a story remain newsworthy?

Newsworthiness has a highly variable lifespan depending on the story type and context. Breaking news might remain relevant for hours, while feature stories on emerging trends could maintain newsworthiness for weeks or months. The key is understanding where your story falls on this spectrum and timing your pitches accordingly. For longer-term topics, finding fresh angles or updates can extend newsworthiness considerably.

6. Should I avoid pitching during major news events?

For most stories, it’s prudent to avoid pitching during major breaking news events when journalists are focused elsewhere. However, if your story directly relates to the breaking news, a timely pitch offering helpful expert commentary or relevant data can be very successful. Monitor the news cycle carefully and be prepared to pivot your timing if unexpected major stories emerge.

7. How important are exclusive offers to journalists?

Exclusivity can significantly increase a story’s appeal to specific journalists, particularly for high-value publications. Exclusive access to data, interviews, or announcements gives journalists a competitive advantage they value. However, exclusivity should be offered strategically based on reach, relevance, and relationship value, as it necessarily limits your overall coverage potential.

8. Can a story be too controversial to pitch?

While controversy can enhance newsworthiness, stories that are excessively divisive or potentially damaging require careful handling. The key is distinguishing between productive controversy that stimulates meaningful discussion and destructive controversy that might harm relationships or reputation. When pitching sensitive topics, providing balanced perspective and credible supporting information becomes even more critical.

9. How do I make technical information more newsworthy?

Technical stories become more newsworthy when framed in terms of their human impact, practical applications, or problem-solving potential. Translate technical specifications into real-world benefits, provide concrete examples of how the technology affects users, and create compelling visuals that illustrate complex concepts accessibly. Having actual users available to share their experiences also dramatically increases appeal.

10. How can I measure if my story was truly newsworthy?

Beyond simple metrics like number of placements, evaluate quality indicators such as: prominence of coverage (feature vs. mention), inclusion of key messages, reach to target audiences, engagement metrics (shares, comments), inclusion of visual assets, journalist feedback, and resulting website traffic or lead generation. These combined metrics provide a more comprehensive assessment of newsworthiness than any single measure.